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Consumers (07-01-2008)

Consumers in Europe: survey on services provided to EU citizens

A new publication released today by the Directorate General of Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO) and the Statistical Office of the European Communities (ESTAT), has collected comprehensive data on services of general interest that play a central role in the economic and social lives of European consumers. The data covers services such as energy, transport, electricity, telecommunications, Internet, postal services and banking services. The analysis covers the perception of consumers regarding the affordability and quality of the services. This new approach of compiling all the different sector studies into one report, this provides a more complete picture of the overall level of satisfaction of EU citizens with regard to services of general interest. At the same time, sector-specific data is highlighted in each section, for example two thirds of citizens consider electricity affordable while the remaining third does not; 26% of citizens also believe that their interests regarding electricity supply are not well protected; 38% of EU citizens highlighted the practical difficulties in switching from one mobile operator to a different one.